A Challenger for Tish James

Tammy MeadowsDelia Hunley-Adossa, at a Brooklyn Day event last year with Borough President Marty Markowitz and Sal Zarzana of the Brooklyn Carpenters Union, will vie for Letitia James’ council seat.

Update | 4:05 p.m. Thursday Delia Hunley-Adossa, the president of the 88th Precinct Community Council, a longtime community activist and a prominent supporter of the Atlantic Yards project, plans to challenge Councilwoman Letitia James, whose term expires at the end of the year. Ms. James is one of Atlantic Yards’ most vocal critics.

Ms. Hunley-Adossa, 52, who owns a private security company, says she is running against Ms. James, who has held the 35th District council seat since 2003, “to be a part of the new forward-thinking leadership movement.” She added: “I’m standing on three E’s that are impacting us today — economy, education and environment.”

Ms. Hunley-Adossa is the chairwoman of a committee of nonprofit groups that signed a Community Benefits Agreement with Atlantic Yards’ developer, Forest City Ratner, binding the developer to provide job training, affordable housing and business opportunities to local residents. Critics, including Ms. James, say the agreement provides too little affordable housing.

Ms. Hunley-Adossa said her candidacy, which was first reported by the Atlantic Yards Report, was unrelated to her work on Atlantic Yards, the stalled $4 billion mixed-use development.

“One thing had nothing to do with the other,” she said.

She declined to say what made her a better qualified candidate than Ms. James but said she would release her full platform at her first fund-raising event March 19 at Two Steps Down on DeKalb Avenue.

John Marshall Mantel for The New York TimesCouncilwoman Letitia James, in October.

Ms. James, who is in her late 40′s, said today that she felt that the race would come down to a debate over Atlantic Yards. Her district includes most of the site.

“I’m confident that Atlantic Yards was a primary reason for her candidacy since all the other issues she’s raised I’ve been on the forefront on in this district, including education and environment,” she said. “The only issue where there’s a major difference is Atlantic Yards.”

The community benefits agreement, signed by Forest City and eight nonprofits, including a group headed by Ms. Hunley-Adossa called Brooklyn Endeavor Experience, states that Forest City will set aside half of the more than 4,000 apartments planned in the project for affordable housing. Tenants in affordable units would pay no more than 30 percent of their income towards rent, the agreement says.

Work on the project, which was supposed to be built out over the next decade or so, had barely begun when the economic crisis, among other factors, forced it to a halt. Forest City was also The New York Times’s development partner on the newspaper’s recently-constructed headquarters in Manhattan.

Ms. Hunley-Adossa’s critics, including Norman Oder, who writes Atlantic Yards Report, have raised questions about Ms. Hunley-Adossa’s relationship with Forest City Ratner. She confirmed that Forest City contributed $10,000 to the Brooklyn Endeavor Experience to support the group’s summer-camp program.

Ms. James said she looked forward to a “spirited debate and discussion” with Ms. Hunley-Adossa, who lives at 170 South Portland.

“Norman Oder and countless others have raised some serious questions,” Ms. James said. “I would hope that she would answer these questions and others that will come.”

According to the Brooklyn Endeavor Experience Web site, Ms. Hunley-Adossa majored in business at Long Island University, runs Zaire Inc. Security, and has served on the boards of many charities.

From 1 to 25 of 39 Comments

Here are some of the questions raised in my article:
–how much does developer Forest City Ratner contribute to fund the fledgling community organization Brooklyn Endeavor Experience (BEE), the CBA signatory Hunley-Adossa leads?

–what environmental expertise does Hunley-Adossa have to run BEE, which aims to address green issues?

–why has BEE distributed more money in compensation to Hunley-Adossa than it has spent on program services?

I quit going to 88th Precinct Council meetings when it became clear to me that those running them were basically groupies; they were going to applaud the 88th and its captain, no matter what the Precinct did or didn’t do, and no matter who the Captain happened to be that year; they didn’t seem interested in legitimate community concerns. It was even difficult to get called on if it was clear to those running the meeting that you’d bring up genuine problems and seek intelligent answers and real solutions – rather than the perennial “the community has to be our eyes and ears” – speak. Tish James has been more helpful to honest citizens having problems with the 88th and its unresponsive Community Affairs office than any other politician we’ve had in this area recently. I vote Tish.

PS: Perhaps Ms.Hunley-Adossa could tell us why the Captain of the 88th sometimes states that he doesn’t have enough officers to address issues in the community because he has to commit personnel to patrol Mr. Ratner’s mall. Was it part of Ratner’s original deal with the City of NY that our tax dollars should pay for NYPD security on his private premises, even when budget cuts leave fewer police officers on our streets?

I don’t agree with Tish on everything, but that’s ok. Over the last several years she has shown herself to be a true and stalwart friend of the community. She puts time into the neighborhood and is unafraid to stick her neck out for what she believes is necessary.

Please can somebody post where we can send checks to Tish’s re-election campaign. She is the first elected official to speak the truth about Atlantic Yards. We need to keep her in office! Thank you Norman Oder for your continued excellent reporting. Did Ms. Hunley-Adossa address speak out at one of the public “hearings” on AY? If so, do you have the text of her comments handy that you could post on here? I have a vague memory of her being so awful in one of those meetings and want to see if memory serves me correctly. Thanks.

I strongly concur with joe’s sentiments. I have attended 88th Community Precinct Council meetings and found it rather strange how many officers are devoted to patrolling Atlantic Mall instead of our neighborhood streets.

Councilwoman James is a strong progressive voice. She and her staff are a ubiquitous presence throughout the district and I commend her thoughtful leadership and her commitment to the residents of the 35th.

Bull and meh – if you’re contending that Ms. James “moves the City backward, promotes inner city abandonment and high unemployment and widespread homelessness,” would you mind providing some examples? She’s lobbying for MORE affordable housing at Atlantic Yards, not less. If that project is built and occupied as primarily luxury housing, it will displace more members of the community in the immediate vicinity, creating yet more homelessness.

And those promoting the “jobs” that would purportedly be created by Atlantic Yards are generally pushing a wildly exaggerated total of jobs for transient construction workers, maintaining that each “job” only lasts one year, and then multiplying by the number of years the project would be under construction. After the construction workers leave (and may well be unemployed again), it’s FG/CH that will be left to cope long term with the monstrosity they built – including its increased pollution and traffic and displacement of low income residents. That’s not a fair tradeoff for the surrounding community. The so-called “Community Benefits Agreement” benefits primarily Mr. Ratner and the pseudo-neighborhood-representatives on his payroll. And shame on Marty Markowitz for taking Ratner’s money for his private foundation, and then acting as his lobbyist to the City and the State.

Hey Bull, did you happen to read a paper or listen to the news over the past 18 months?

It so happens that there is a group of people who put the whole country on the road to “inner city abandonment, high unemployment, and widespread homelessness” by destroying the economy — real estate speculators just like the one who backs Hunley-Adossa.

I met Ms. James only recently but would like to say I found her accessible, responsive, communicative and thoroughly interested in fighting on the community’s behalf, after many years of having heard this was her reputation.

Someone with the backing of Forest City will be viewed with extreme skepticism in this neighborhood. This project:

– is being pushed through without transparency
– is designed grossly out of scale with community wishes
– could have been done to a scale with land available — not through eminent domain abuse.
– will not be redirecting money into the community, rather into developer’s pockets
– will create skyscrapers when we all live in Brooklyn precisely to avoid out of scale development
– will not end up providing all the affordable housing they promise (what do you think the first thing to be cut will be?)

I, for one, will be casting my vote in Ms. James’ favor. Thank you for fighting for our community.

Suppose you first answer the question I put to you in my post of 10:10 AM. It was: Please provide examples to support the contentions in your post of 9:50 AM. You’ve thrown out some pretty broad statements about Ms. James’ record; instead of just continuing to bash her indiscriminately, back up your initial statements with specifics if you want to continue this conversation.

Matt, the 990 form posted by Oder on his site, is the documentation that “BEE distributed more money in compensation to Hunley-Adossa than it has spent on program services? and half the BEE board consist of Hunley-Adossa family members”:

Tish has been an advocate for our community since the day she took office. The candidate is a plant by Ratner, he’s running scared right now. There is strong community opposition to AY and Tish has led the fight from the very beginning. This opposition candidate has her work cut out for her in her attempt to oppose Tish. Using AY as part of her platform is the kiss of death for her campaign in the nabe. Tish will win by a landslide. She is concerned, accessible, and hard working and has the heart of the community she represents.

I agree with BULL & MEH Ms James does not tell the truth and she is not for the betterment of Fort Greene/Clinton Hills Community
Councilwoman Letitia James, Borough President Marty Markowitz, Bank of New York CEO Tom Renyi, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Planning Director Amanda Burden cut ribbon at new Bank of New York.
Ever since the city first announced the rezoning earlier this year, residents have been working to ensure their neighborhoods will be protected and not overrun with traffic.
Residents and business owners packed the four public hearings on the plan. The Institute of Design and Construction, a 67-year-old architectural school at the corner of Flatbush Avenue Extension and Willoughby Street that was to be razed to make for better sight-lines from Flatbush Avenue to the planned Willoughby Square, was spared after much wrangling.
Fort Greene and Prospect Heights Councilwoman Letitia James, who initially opposed the plan, voted for it on Monday, citing the mayor’s commitment to affordable housing, traffic mitigation and “the recognition of historical resource and the commitment to some additional historic resources.”
Yassky agreed to support the plan after negotiating with the mayor to fund a study of residential permit parking in the area and to cut back on the number of parking spaces reserved for official government use.
Yassky, Bloomberg and Transportation Commissioner Iris Weinshall held a photo opportunity at the corner of Smith and State streets Thursday morning to announce that more than 110 spaces allocated for city agency vehicles would be eliminated in Downtown Brooklyn by the fall.

Hey Joe, You need to do your homework on MS.Tish James
and what she really does about affordable housing.

Has anyone even bothered to check Letitia James’ record as a landlady for her 296 Lafayette Avenue dwelling? Letitia’s (or Tish as she’s often referred) is far from stellar. Heating issues, hot water issues, rodents, bugs, un-protected mail, peeling walls/ceilings, you name it. It’s a shame that we have an individual with her record fighting the fight for safe, healthy, and affordable housing. Tish is a phony and one issue council member; she just takes credit for doing things that she truly has not done.

Tish James does indeed own property and rents said property out. Not only rents said property, but treats her tenants with a high level of disrespect, neglects her dwelling, ignores their concerns, and increases their rent in a fashion that is completely opposite of the platform on which she spouts her politic rhetoric. I’m not certain what it is you consider to be devil’s work, but I can assure you the way in which Tish’s tenants have been treated, is completely devlisih. I don’t know Christine’s record as a landlord, however I was directly affected by Tish’s behavior and am witness to her misdeeds as a homeowner, community “leader” and landlady.

amidst all this commentary and some personal laments and attacks, what’s all this talk of housing and jobs from Atlantic Yards. It seems that Ratner has stated that the arena is built first, and when the economy makes it affordable for him to build the other parts he might get around to them. So his agreements are worth what?

About the Local

The Local provides news, information, entertainment and informed conversation about the things that matter to you, your neighbors and your family, from bloggers and citizens who live, work and create in your community. It is run by students and faculty of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, in collaboration with The New York Times, which provides supervision to assure that the blog remains impartial, reporting-based, thorough and rooted in Times standards.

Get news about Fort Greene and Clinton Hill in our daily roundup, including the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s summer slate of youth-oriented programs and the third annual Art of Brooklyn Film Festival coming to St. Joseph’s College in Clinton Hill.

In today’s daily post, you’ll find news on the spring opening of the Fort Greene Artisan Market, a Pratt Institute student artwork display at a Gagosian Gallery in Manhattan and a new recording studio in the nabe.

In this crime report, locals told police that their belongings were stolen from cars and trucks, their homes were burglarized and their bank accounts were used in unauthorized ways. Also, disputes between significant others resulted in violence and robberies last week. The trend of robberies on the B38 bus continued last week, with another incident on May 4 marking the tenth such robbery in the precinct this year so far.

How Does Your School Stack Up?

Find test scores and other performance data for your East Village school -- and how the numbers compare to peer schools throughout the state.